On Friday, I was asked to go down The Big Red in Holloway to check out three bands. Well, who doesn’t want a bit of metal at the end of the week, especially when it’s Friday 13th?

Butcher In The Fog (c) Danni Garner

Opening the show with a lot of crowd support, was three-piece band Butcher in the Fog, who describe themselves as a “no-nonsense heavy band from London”, taking elements from metal, rock, punk, sticking it together and getting on with it. This they definitely did. I liked the fact that Yanni, the vocalist and guitarist, did the whole set with his shoes off! Maybe he feels closer to the music vibes this way. I’d been told the whole band do like to strip off during their set, which did happen about half way through… but, hey, it’s hot when you’re rocking hard.

They played just one song “Flinch” from their 2015 album Something Bright and Scary, the other five were new songs which will be on their future album. Yanni tells me they have just finished recording the new album and hopefully it will be released in March 2018, so keep an eye out on their bandcamp page.

A quote from their Facebook page on Friday night read “All we ever wanted was a chance to show what we can do consistently. Thank you Big Red!! Tonight was special. Big shout out to Trevor’s Head and Wychhound.” It sounds like they had an awesome time as well. You can see them live on Friday 20th at the Dev in Camden.

Wychhound (c) Ryan Whitwell

Next to play were Trevor’s Head, a band from Redhill, Surrey, with sounds of punk, grunge and some stoner rock. They played seven songs, all with interesting titles, including four from their 2016 LP Tricolossus such as “Pan-Galactic Peacenicks” and “Goverment Whores” – this song went down very well with the crowd, lots of cheering and some mild moshing – then they finished their set with “Blood Moon”. Check out their bandcamp page to listen to them or go see them live at the Birds Nest in London on 20th October.

Last but not least were stoner rock/grunge/metal band, Wychhound. To quote Ryan who photographed them that night “A flowy vibe that sometimes didn’t seem to have a direction, but that’s kind of the point. They don’t have a vocalist and seem to be free to break away from verse chorus verse structures, at times sounding like a free form jam session.”

They do have a very talented bassist, who seemed to lead, in terms of rhythm and the band followed him. You can listen to their 2015 EP Wychhound on their bandcamp page.